Although more is known about how general parenting practices predict social-emotional strengths in children, less research has looked at parent involvement in education and children's social-emotional strengths. This study examined the extent to which parent involvement, specifically home-based involvement, parent-teacher trust, and home-school communication, predicted children's social-emotional strengths in kindergarten. The study featured both parent (n = 120) and teacher ratings (n = 156) of children's social-emotional strengths. We examined the association between parent involvement and social emotional strengths while controlling for child age and gender, socioeconomic status, and general parenting (positive verbal discipline and harsh/inconsistent discipline). Parents' reports of home-based involvement were a moderate to strong positive predictor of their child's social-emotional strengths over the kindergarten year. For teacher ratings of social-emotional strengths, parents' trust of the teacher was associated with higher social-emotional strengths. The findings may inform essential components in parenting or school-based interventions for social-emotional development, as well as differences in what parents and teachers perceive as related to social-emotional development in young children.Impact StatementParents play an important role in children's social-emotional development. The current study demonstrate parents perceive home-based involvement activities are associated with child social-emotional strengths, while teachers perceive a trusting relationship between home and school as most important. Results highlight ways to support schools and families working together to support social-emotional strengths.

The global COVID-19 pandemic significantly disrupted educational environments for all students when the majority of schools in the United States abruptly switched to remote learning. School climate, including support and structure, has been recognized as an important construct that influences student functioning. The current study explored student perceptions of school climate before school disruptions as a potential protective factor against negative outcomes during the pandemic. Middle school students (N = 225) completed assessments of their perceptions of school climate in Fall 2019 and self-reported internalizing symptoms in Spring 2020. Structural equation modeling was used to test both the association and directionality between school climate and internalizing symptoms. Positive perception of school climate before the pandemic was significantly associated with less internalizing symptoms during initial school closures, particularly for girls. The results highlight the importance of school climate in students' mental health, especially during periods of stress. Limitations and future directions are discussed.